Sunday, February 12, 2012

The Valentine Story

I think used to be in love with love, a part of me still is..............
 I first fell in love when i was 12yrs, if you disagree that it couldnt have been love because i was just an adolescent, id have you know that my 12year old self would argue fiercely with you about that, she was quite stubborn, and very smart, albeit naive. Back to my story, so i fell in love with a boy, typical high school story, girl crushes about boy from afar, yes i agree it was a crush, i didn't say my 23year old self wouldn't agree. I would sit by myself in school fantasizing about him professing love to me, id make up conversations day and night about what i would say, it was real love, I was a beautiful girl, 12years, first year of senior secondary school and i was sure i had met the man i wanted to marry, i just needed him to notice me first. that was the first time i knew how important Valentines was, when the boy i loved walked past me and handed a gift to my best friend.

The first time i received love i was 13years old, he was my classmate and he had the hots for me, he would follow me around, trying to get my attention, buy me little gifts and write very cute letters leaving them in my bag and sometimes even handing them over to my friends to give me, He was my first Valentine, i remember being scared to take the gifts home, it was a love wooden basket with a big red bow, inside the basket; two boxes of chocolate, a bottle of wine, a card, beautiful teddy bear and a bottle of perfume, lets not forget the cake that didn't see the light of day when he walked into the class with it, i remember sounds of my male classmates screaming "e rush e". the cake was gone in an instant, i never even saw how it looked.
That was the first time i knew what it felt like for someone to show you love by giving a gift, over the following years, i got "valed" a couple of times, sometimes i didnt, but i never forgot my first, i had treated him like crap but he has gone out of his way to show me love on the 14th of February, we are still friends till this day.

The first time i gave a valentine's gift i was 16years, i had just gotten into my first real relationship, 2nd year in the university, in way over my head, i was in love, this time i was sure it was true love, after all he said he loved me back too, oh it had to be true love, i was a broke student, receiving a measly 7000naira from my parents, i had no clue what to buy him, i thought long and hard about it, i wanted this gift to mean something, but i didnt have a lot of money and i was determined to show love on that special day. Armed with 3000naira i went to the market , yes the market to see what i could get, i finally decided on buying him a CD rack, you see he had just moved to a new apartment, it was not anything big, usual student self contained, a tiny bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, he planned to share it with one of his friends but somehow it had become a hangout for everybody, now he had about 4 extra "squatters" living with him also, Armed with my beautiful plastic brown cd rack - brown because he had a brown rug and brown bedsheets and curtains- see my boyfriend had style, i went to my favorite cd seller, and bought 20 of my boyfriends favorite albums, all the songs i could thing of that he loved, songs that marked milestones in our relationships, songs that reminded me of him, i bought them all. That was my first Val gift and it cost 3000.

I received my most expensive Valentines gift when i was 21years old, same boyfriend, 5years after, we had gotten to the point where we would just go into a store and each pick what we wanted that the other person could afford, we had known each other too well then. That day though, i did get the bottle of perfume i had picked, but he also surprised me the next day, with an entire outfit down to new shoes and a purse, and then he chauffeured me, yes chauffeured , i sat behind and he drove me, opened the car door and all of that, to our favorite restaurant for dinner, it was the most romantic and grandest gesture any one ever did for me.

The most romantic valentines gift i ever gave were a series of 25 text messages, sent on the hour, from the 14th midnight to the 15th midnight, they were simple notes about why i thought he was special, how much i loved him, why i loved him, how he made me feel, each unique and always with a sense of humor, The boyfriend then was in a different country and being in Nigeria and a struggling youth corper, i didn't have access to a credit card to buy anything online and deliver it to him grandiosely so i didnt something else, i decided to make him feel special the entire day.

My Last Valentines day, was spent alone, ok maybe not alone, my girlfriend and i decided to have a go at it together, we baked a cake, drank some wine at home, filled with sob stories bout how we didn't get "valed" and then at 9pm, put on dresses and beautiful 6inch heels and went to see a movie, yes we dressed up to see a movie, it was my year of self discovery and i was loving me more than any other at that time.

I have always been in love with love, i have always been the mushiest, most romantic person amongst my friends, Love is precious to me, i do not deceive myself that it is everything but i do know that it is the most valuable thing to have, someone that loves you sincerely will make you the happiest person on earth even though no other thing in your life is right.
I agree that love should be shown everyday and not just on one particular day of the year, but if you get a birthday, why shouldn't the most valuable thing on the planet get its. When you genuinely care about someone, the thrill of buying something for them, something that will make them smile, something that will make them special will genuinely make you happy even if it is on Valentines day.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

DOn't worry BBB, love will find you again or should I say, you'd soon find love again. Dont give up on love :)

- LDP

doll (retired blogger) said...

aw..how romantic. i love that2 5 text message one! il prob do it next year....though it would be bbm message.

My most romantic val was this year...with my new husband...in our beautiful kitchen...candle lights...eating the first meal i cooked as a Mrs.

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